New to Tubeless - what to do with puncture?

billium

Member
Jul 10, 2022
94
85
Sussex
My new Whyte is my first bike without an inner tube and I just found a long thorn in the back wheel.
I pulled it out and hisssssss , so I turned the wheel so the hole was facing down and it sealed immediately with a little bead of white sealant showing.
So great, this tubeless stuff really works!

But what do I do now?

Should I:
  1. Ignore it - the thorn is about 1mm in diameter and the leak sealed immediately.
  2. Run and get a tubeless plug kit (with the licorice string) today and plug the hole before riding again.
  3. Plug it when I get time.
  4. Something else?
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IMG_7910.JPG
 

irie

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
Subscriber
May 2, 2022
2,026
1,975
Chichester, W.Sussex, UK
"Run and get a tubeless plug kit" and take it with you so that if the hole unseals when out you can plug it there and then. Last time we had this (Hawthorn trees everywhere) the plug blew out but another one got us (my wife) home. Educational because after showing her what to do she bought her own kit and takes it whenever she's out.
 

Mikerb

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
May 16, 2019
6,145
4,676
Weymouth
I have pulled thorns like that from tyres several times...........never used plugs and never had any subsequent problems. So just leave it.
 

Bones

E*POWAH Master
Subscriber
Apr 3, 2020
756
992
Harrogate
I would ignore it. Don't pull the thorn out to start with if possible.
I think I have more than 2 dozen in my front tyre and it still fine.
 

steve_sordy

Wedding Crasher
Nov 5, 2018
8,429
8,676
Lincolnshire, UK
I would ignore it.
If I saw a thorn sticking out, I would remove it and do what you did, rotate the wheel.
In normal use; the thorn strikes, the wheel rotates and breaks off the thorn, then sealant seals and I am completely unaware of what has just happened! :)

I once used a sealant that was fluorescent green; it left a green spot where the puncture was if the bike had been unused for several days. I counted 24 punctures on one tyre and 22 on the other! :eek: Both tyres behave perfectly normally. Just think of how many trailside tube replacements/repairs I had avoided! :love:
 

billium

Member
Jul 10, 2022
94
85
Sussex
Thanks for the tips.
I did get a MucOff bar-end puncture kit but did not use it and will not - unless the puncture leaks again.

Looking at the insertion tool I wonder if forcing a 4mm wide fork into a tiny thorn hole could end up doing more damage to the tyre vs just letting the sealant do its thing.

Also the MucOff box says right on the front Plugs and repairs holes that won't seal with just sealant.

IMG_7921.JPG
 

Ark

Active member
Mar 8, 2023
400
333
Newcastle Upon Tyne
you still need to take an innertube for anything you can't plug.
Also you will need to redo the sealant every few months because it will dry out over time
 
Last edited:

Kwaka

New Member
May 2, 2023
6
11
Cheddar, Somerset, UK
you still need to take an innertube for anything you can't plug.
Also you will need to redo the sealant every few months because it will dry out over time
this might be a silly question, but I’m new to tubeless cycle tyres as well, but how do you change the sealant?
Drain out and replace ?
Chuck some more in of whats already in there in?
Chuck any sealant in and let it blend with what’s in there already?
 

Ark

Active member
Mar 8, 2023
400
333
Newcastle Upon Tyne
this might be a silly question, but I’m new to tubeless cycle tyres as well, but how do you change the sealant?
Drain out and replace ?
Chuck some more in of whats already in there in?
Chuck any sealant in and let it blend with what’s in there already?
the sealant will probably lasts 3-6months
you'll only be doing it 2-3 x before you need new tyres anyway so it's not massively annoying
 

TQmotorguy

Member
Apr 8, 2023
15
5
California
Most people seem to use stans sealent btw, don't buy mucoff just because that's what the video shows.
you get like 8x as much sealant for the same price with stans
Uh - in case anyone wants accurate information: 1 Liter Bottle Muc-Off $29.99, 1 Quart Stans $34.00, both on Amazon. Muc-off is cheaper than Stans.
 

Hardtail

Active member
Mar 8, 2021
211
129
Uk
Uh - in case anyone wants accurate information: 1 Liter Bottle Muc-Off $29.99, 1 Quart Stans $34.00, both on Amazon. Muc-off is cheaper than Stans.
But nobody outside the U Ess of Ah understands how big a Quart is...

So, a liter (L) is an SI unit of volume, defined as the volume occupied by a cube measuring exactly 10 centimetres (or 0.1 meters) on each side. On the other hand, a quart (qt) is an imperial and US customary unit of volume, equivalent to approximately 0.946 liters.

So basically, you can fit 3.14 million Quarks into a litre... Which has nothing to do with the OP...

I hope that clears it all up...
 

TQmotorguy

Member
Apr 8, 2023
15
5
California
But nobody outside the U Ess of Ah understands how big a Quart is...

So, a liter (L) is an SI unit of volume, defined as the volume occupied by a cube measuring exactly 10 centimetres (or 0.1 meters) on each side. On the other hand, a quart (qt) is an imperial and US customary unit of volume, equivalent to approximately 0.946 liters.

So basically, you can fit 3.14 million Quarks into a litre... Which has nothing to do with the OP...

I hope that clears it all up...
Good point about most of the world not knowing (or caring) about imperial measure units. I was promised by my elementary teacher in the 60’s that we (U.S.) would be using the metric system within 5 years. He then gave up trying to teach us about it because nobody, including himself, could follow it. Problem was that he taught it in terms of what multiplier to use to convert imperial to metric. He never knew or told us that metric units are based on simple facts and moving a decimal point, whereas our units were based on meaningless values and convoluted calculations.

But back to the OP ‘s topic: Muc-off sealant works well for me and is a little cheaper than Stan’s.
 

Sander23

Active member
Aug 28, 2020
700
433
Belgium
Did a tire swap today. SAW I had 4 back and 1 front tire puncture wich I diddnt even noticed, so the muc off did its job.
Now I testing this sealant wich claims to seal holes up to 7mm
 

RsGaz

Active member
Subscriber
Nov 6, 2020
103
56
N. Lincolnshire
While we’re on about sealants, is anyone using the new Peaty’s Holeshot stuff with bits in that’s supposed to seal bigger holes, if anyone is, how do you rate it?
 

Ian222

Member
Oct 19, 2021
131
39
England
No but I have just bought the peatys stuff. Had a couple of punctures with muc off which it didn’t seal up so went proper flat.
 

p3eps

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
Subscriber
Dec 14, 2019
1,871
2,237
Scotland
While we’re on about sealants, is anyone using the new Peaty’s Holeshot stuff with bits in that’s supposed to seal bigger holes, if anyone is, how do you rate it?
I've been using it for bout 4 months with no issues so far.

Got new wheels on Saturday, so took the tyres off my old wheels to fit to the new ones... and there was no lumps or gunk. Still a reasonable amount of liquid sloshing about.
The only thing was those little 'bits' ended up going everywhere and are a proper pain in the ass to clean and get off your hands 😂

Peaty's sent me a 15% coupon when I ordered some drivetrain cleaner / brush the other day (both of which I'm really impressed with), so I might use the coupon to get another litre of Holeshot.
 

steve_sordy

Wedding Crasher
Nov 5, 2018
8,429
8,676
Lincolnshire, UK
No but I have just bought the peatys stuff. Had a couple of punctures with muc off which it didn’t seal up so went proper flat.
That happened to me once, but only because I hadn't properly shaken the bottle of sealant before I added it to the tyre. I ended up just adding the latex and left all the bits in the bottle! The bits normally settle as a creamy crud at the bottom of the bottle. It needs a bloody good shale to shift it depending upon how long it's been in storage. My sealant was Continental Revo Sealant, but it's latex based like the Muc Off stuff.
 

steve_sordy

Wedding Crasher
Nov 5, 2018
8,429
8,676
Lincolnshire, UK
Good point about most of the world not knowing (or caring) about imperial measure units. I was promised by my elementary teacher in the 60’s that we (U.S.) would be using the metric system within 5 years. He then gave up trying to teach us about it because nobody, including himself, could follow it. Problem was that he taught it in terms of what multiplier to use to convert imperial to metric. He never knew or told us that metric units are based on simple facts and moving a decimal point, whereas our units were based on meaningless values and convoluted calculations.

But back to the OP ‘s topic: Muc-off sealant works well for me and is a little cheaper than Stan’s.
When at School I was crap at Physics, just could never decide whether to multiply by 32 feet per sec2 per sec, or to divide by it. We had the same name for mass as we did for force, and as you say, all sorts of weird units. Very confusing, and the teachers never took the time to explain to those that didn't' get it straight away. I left school believing that I was a bit thick. :cry:

Then I went to technical college and we were taught in the SI system (Systeme Internationale), which is a coherent and logical set of metric units. All of a sudden everything was clear and I discovered that I was actually very good at engineering stuff, thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, electrical stuff and so forth. Once I had "got with the program" and understood for the first time how stuff worked, I discovered that I could go back to the Imperial System and use the data to work out seriously complex stuff with confidence. I blame the school teachers! But the Technical College guys were brilliant, every single one! :)
 

Nomad1

Member
Apr 2, 2023
208
70
03818
this might be a silly question, but I’m new to tubeless cycle tyres as well, but how do you change the sealant?
Drain out and replace ?
Chuck some more in of whats already in there in?
Chuck any sealant in and let it blend with what’s in there already?
I find that changing it when I change to my winter tires is all I need to do. Then again in the spring when snows gone and I take the studded off unless you get a ton punctures topping off isn't something you should have to do often if at all. Carry a tube as backup regardless as well as plugs.
 

Whitby Chris

Active member
Subscriber
Jul 13, 2021
145
84
Whitby
I have always used Stan's and also carry Stans Darts, also an inner tube for anything large.

Have seen the Peatys stuf and will probably go that way as I think Peatys lubes are great.
 

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